Document Type : The social history of women in the art and society of Iran and the ancient world(Guest editor: Dr. Esmail Sangari)

Author

• Hamidreza Pashazanous

Assistant Professor, Department of History,, University of Isfahan;

Abstract

The term "Xwēdōdah " is one of the most important concepts of Zoroastrian jurisprudence, which is interpreted as consanguine marriage. Among the evidences related to the existence of this custom among some Iranians, there are Greek and Roman texts, which were explored by researchers. But the Greeks and Romans were not the only nations that mentioned this type of marriage between Iranians. Chinese, Buddhist, Japanese and Korean texts also have interesting information about xwēdōdah. The present article aims to examine the evidence related to xwēdōdah in these texts. Working on these sources gives us important results. First, the information of these texts can be divided into two categories. Part of this information includes reports that deal with this custom among Iranians and other ethnic groups of Iranian origin. The rest is related to Iranian immigrants in the Far East. The tomb inscription of Mǎ Shì (馬氏) in Cháng'ān (長安) is one of the main data that shows how consanguine marriage was practiced among Iranian immigrants in China. Secondly, according to these texts, xwēdōdah was a religious practice that did not only belong to Iranians, but was prevalent among most of the Aryans who followed the Zoroastrian religion.

Keywords

• Ancient Iran
• China
• xwēdōdah
• Mǎ Shì؛
• Sū Lià؛ ng

Main Subjects

• The social history of women in the art and society of Iran and the ancient world